Monthly Archives: April 2017

On the heels of major shakeups at the Fox News Network, an alternative conservative network is being actively discussed amongst conservative fat cats.

A well-placed source close to the proposal tells Mediaite that serious discussions are underway to create an alternative conservative cable network on the belief that the Fox News Network is moving too far to the left. The source, who is engaged in the talks, says a meeting is planned for today with two prominent high-powered television executives, some underperforming conservative networks and people who have an interest and the ability to fund a new network.

The potential aim? Putting “the old band” back together. There are certainly plenty of (out-of-work?) conservative powerhouses to pick from that could star on a new network, and perhaps even some executives from within Fox News who might be lured by the new opportunity.

Could the new channel include stars like the ousted Bill O’Reilly, who didn’t waste much time hitting the podcast waves after he was fired amid a sexual harassment scandal? Could Tomi Lahren, the conservative mega star, who was recently sidelined at The Blaze also take on a prominent role? The exact “who” won’t be clear until the deal is more defined but the source says the pitch is that the network could immediately reach at least 85 million homes.

This news comes on the heels of a long profile in last weekend’s New York Times which paints a picture of a changing Fox News Network with Murdoch’s sons, James and Lachlan, CEO and co-chairman of parent company 21st Century Fox, at the helm. The piece struck fear into the minds of some Fox News’ hardcore conservatives with talk of the sons wanting to rid the company “of the old-guard culture on which their father built his empire” and bringing “a warmer and fuzzier workplace” that would move away from an “anti-politically correct environment.”

On Thursday, New York Magazine‘s Gabe Sherman, a constant thorn in the side of Fox News, reported that “sweeping management changes” may be coming to the network as well. Sherman’s report cited three anonymous sources that contend that the network’s co-President Bill Shine recently asked the Murdoch sons to release a statement in support of him amid the roiling lawsuits and scandals. Both Fox News and 21 Century Fox have vigorously denied that Shine made such a request but the report by Sherman prompted a rather mysterious tweet about the “total end of the FNC as we know it” by the network’s biggest remaining star, Sean Hannity:

“I just don’t see Fox News and Sean having a long relationship. If Sean becomes available, you have 100 percent turnover in primetime and a huge opportunity,” a television executive, who didn’t want to be identified, but is involved in some of the talks, told Mediaite.

“I’m working on it (the new conservative channel) hot and heavy,” the source said. “It’s live, it’s real.” The new channel could come to fruition within the next 10 to 12 months, the executive said.

It is no surprise that a savvy investor would see the turmoil within Fox News as a major opportunity. As The Times piece noted, analysts estimate that Fox News produced 25 percent of 21st Century Fox’s operating income last year or a whopping $6.6 billion. Conservative news remains a cash cow for investors, but the media landscape is quickly changing with younger viewers “cutting the cord” and turning to alternative over-the-top live streaming platforms like Hulu, Amazon, Roku and YouTube TV. Could a conservative alternative channel with some big names have an edge on the 20-year-old conservative network? Stay tuned. Our source is convinced it can happen.

PARIS — Researchers with the Japanese anti-virus firm Trend Micro say the campaign of French presidential front-runner Emmanuel Macron has been targeted by Russia-linked hackers, adding more details to previous suggestions that the centrist politician was being singled out for electronic eavesdropping by the Kremlin.The campaign’s digital chief, Mounir Mahjoubi, confirmed the attempted intrusions in a telephone interview late Monday but said they had all been thwarted.“It’s serious, but nothing was compromised,” he said.The French presidential race is not yet over. Macron faces far-right rival Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential runoff on May 7. Macron favors a strong European Union, while Le Pen wants to pull France out of the bloc, weakening it.Trend Micro said it discovered the campaign by monitoring the creation of rogue, lookalike websites often used by hackers to trick victims into giving up their passwords. The Tokyo-based firm recently detected four Macron-themed fake domains being set up on digital infrastructure used by a group it calls Pawn Storm, according to Trend Micro researcher Feike Hacquebord.

The French are famously frisky. Carnality is so embedded in the culture that affairs are almost de rigueur for politicians (start your engine, Le Pen). The country’s awash in swing clubs, parties, and resorts. There’s even a town called Cap d’Agde, where wearing clothing is frowned upon.Modal TriggerThe pool at Le Diamant Noir hosts “muscle awareness water aerobics.”Le Diamant NoirSo, France is a fitting place for swinging couple Bruno and Sandra Mazaferro to open a campsite for swingers — the country’s third such location, according to the Connexion.At the randy retreat, Le Diamant Noir, naughty games and “muscle awareness water aerobics” get juices flowing. Nightly parties take place where underwear is deemed optional and cuddle corners attract lovers of the great outdoors as well as other people’s spouses. There are “Eyes Wide Shut” bashes and plenty of opportunities for sexual mingling.MORE ON:SWINGERS’A night of erotic freedom’ at NYC’s most exclusive sex partyInside the wildest open-air swingers festival everWife went on ‘revenge date’ after husband signed her up for swingers siteSex club seeks Nashville blessing by vowing to be a churchAs Bruno told the Daily Mail, the point of his operation is to make swinging vacations accessible to everyone (Cap d’Agde and its ilk can get expensive). Hence, day-passes are available, overnight stays start at $32 and you can rent a camper or bring a tent.France isn’t the only option for couples who want to get it on during their getaway. At La Mirage Swingers Complex in Spain, condoms get handed out as freely as pillow mints. Copacabana Hotel & Suites in Costa Rica has two pools — one clothing optional, the other mandatorily nude — and theme nights with names like Wet and Wild. Guests at Desire Resort & Spa, in Mexico, have been known to make sexy time in the nudity-preferred nightclub.What is it like to actually indulge in a swinger’s vacation? According to a blogger who writes under the name LadyDeeNSarge, it’s anything but boring: “Nightly booty showcases — aka theme nights — are truly ‘pleasure-able’ events. Lingerie, masks, feathers, body stockings, leather — whatever the theme is for the night, you can bet its [sic] gonna be HOT hot HOT. I’m ready to participate, goodbye inhibitions, hello inner freak!”

Amid complaints that his aides are saying different things about Syria and his policy is confusing, President Trump emphatically cleared the air.“We’re not going into Syria,” he told me yesterday in an exclusive interview. “Our policy is the same — it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.”The president, speaking by phone Tuesday, called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a “butcher” and a “barbarian” for using sarin gas on his own people, but said last week’s successful missile strike was not the start of a campaign to oust the dictator.“Our big mission is getting rid of ISIS,” Trump said. “That’s where it’s always been. But when you see kids choking to death, you watch their lungs burning out, we had to hit him and hit him hard.”He called the attack, which involved 59 cruise missiles fired from two Navy destroyers, “an act of humanity.”I asked if he, as a new president, found it difficult to make the final decision, knowing the stakes?“It’s very tough to give that final go-ahead when you know you’re talking about human life,” he said. “We went back and forth, and also back and forth about severity. We could have gone bigger in terms of targets and more of them, but we thought this would be the appropriate first shot.”Later, he added, “We hope he won’t do any more gassing.”The interview was scheduled to last 15 minutes, but ran nearly twice as long. Throughout, the president was gracious, energized and focused. He answered every question, and invited me to ask more as aides tried to get him to his next appointment. So I did.How seriously does he take the threats from Russia, and does he think there is still a possibility for cooperation in the region with Vladimir Putin?“We’re not exactly on the same wavelength with Russia, to put it mildly,” Trump answered. “Putin must see what a barbarian this guy is, and it’s a very bad symbol for Russia with this guy gassing children and using barrel bombs.”With Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow as we spoke, Trump said he hoped for Putin’s cooperation, but added, “I don’t know.”

By Patrick J. BuchananBy firing off five dozen Tomahawk missiles at a military airfield, our “America First” president may have plunged us into another Middle East war that his countrymen do not want to fight.Thus far Bashar Assad seems unintimidated. Brushing off the strikes, he has defiantly gone back to bombing the rebels from the same Shayrat air base that the U.S. missiles hit.Trump “will not stop here,” warned U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Sunday. “If he needs to do more, he will.”If Trump fails to back up Haley’s threat, the hawks now cheering him on will begin deriding him as “Donald Obama.”But if he throbs to the war drums of John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio and orders Syria’s air force destroyed, we could be at war not only with ISIS and al-Qaida, but with Syria, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.A Syrian war would consume Trump’s presidency.Are we ready for that? How would we win such a war without raising a large army and sending it back into the Middle East?Another problem: Trump’s missile attack was unconstitutional. Assad had not attacked or threatened us, and Congress, which alone has the power to authorize war on Syria, has never done so.Indeed, Congress denied President Obama that specific authority in 2013.What was Trump thinking? Here was his strategic rational:“When you kill innocent children, innocent babies — babies, little babies — with a chemical gas … that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line. … And I will tell you, that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me … my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.”Two days later, Trump was still emoting: “Beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”Now, that gas attack was an atrocity, a war crime, and pictures of its tiny victims are heart-rending. But 400,000 people have died in Syria’s civil war, among them thousands of children and infants.Have they been killed by Assad’s forces? Surely, but also by U.S., Russian, Israeli and Turkish planes and drones — and by Kurds, Iranians, Hezbollah, al-Qaida, ISIS, U.S.-backed rebels and Shiite militia.Assad is battling insurgents and jihadists who would slaughter his Alawite brethren and the Christians in Syria just as those Copts were massacred in Egypt on Palm Sunday. Why is Assad more responsible for all the deaths in Syria than those fighting to overthrow and kill him?Have something to say about this column?Visit Pat’s FaceBook page and post your comments….Are we certain Assad personally ordered a gas attack on civilians?For it makes no sense. Why would Assad, who is winning the war and had been told America was no longer demanding his removal, order a nerve gas attack on children, certain to ignite America’s rage, for no military gain?Like the gas attack in 2013, this has the marks of a false flag operation to stampede America into Syria’s civil war.And as in most wars, the first shots fired receive the loudest cheers. But if the president has thrown in with the neocons and War Party, and we are plunging back into the Mideast maelstrom, Trump should know that many of those who helped to nominate and elect him — to keep us out of unnecessary wars — may not be standing by him.We have no vital national interest in Syria’s civil war. It is those doing the fighting who have causes they deem worth dying for.For ISIS, it is the dream of a caliphate. For al-Qaida, it is about driving the Crusaders out of the Dar al Islam. For the Turks, it is, as always, about the Kurds.For Assad, this war is about his survival and that of his regime. For Putin, it is about Russia remaining a great power and not losing its last naval base in the Med. For Iran, this is about preserving a land bridge to its Shiite ally Hezbollah. For Hezbollah it is about not being cut off from the Shiite world and isolated in Lebanon.Because all have vital interests in Syria, all have invested more blood in this conflict than have we. And they are not going to give up their gains or goals in Syria and yield to the Americans without a fight.And if we go to war in Syria, what would we be fighting for?A New World Order? Democracy? Separation of mosque and state? Diversity? Free speech for Muslim heretics? LGBT rights?In 2013, a great national coalition came together to compel Congress to deny Barack Obama authority to take us to war in Syria.We are back at that barricade. An after-Easter battle is shaping up in Congress on the same issue: Is the president authorized to take us into war against Assad and his allies inside Syria?If, after Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, we do not want America in yet another Mideast war, the time to stop it is before the War Party has us already in it. That time is now.

* North Korea media warns of nuclear strike on U.S. if provoked* U.S. warships head for Korean peninsula* Trump says North Korea “looking for trouble”* Russia “really worried” about possible U.S. attack on North (Adds Trump Tweet)By Sue-Lin WongPYONGYANG, April 11 (Reuters) – North Korean state media on Tuesday warned of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of U.S. aggression as a U.S. Navy strike group steamed towards the western Pacific.U.S. President Donald Trump, who has urged China to do more to rein in its impoverished neighbour, said in a Tweet North Korea was “looking for trouble” and the United States would “solve the problem” with or without China’s help.Tension has escalated sharply on the Korean peninsula with talk of military action by the United States gaining traction following its strikes last week against Syria and amid concerns the reclusive North may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test.
North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the country was prepared to respond to any aggression by the United States.

“Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theatre but also in the U.S. mainland,” it said.

South Korean acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn warned of “greater provocations” by North Korea and ordered the military to intensify monitoring and to ensure close communication with the United States.

“It is possible the North may wage greater provocations such as a nuclear test timed with various anniversaries including the Supreme People’s Assembly,” said Hwang, acting leader since former president Park Geun-hye was removed amid a graft scandal.

Trump said in a Tweet a trade deal between China and the United States would be “far better for them if they solved the North Korea problem”.

“If China decides to help, that would be great,” he said. “If not, we will solve the problem without them!”

Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, met in Florida last week and Trump pressed Xi to do more to rein in North Korea.

The North convened a Supreme People’s Assembly session on Tuesday, one of its twice-yearly sessions in which major appointments are announced and national policy goals are formally approved. It did not immediately release details.

But South Korean officials took pains to quell talk in social media of an impending security crisis or outbreak of war.

“We’d like to ask precaution so as not to get blinded by exaggerated assessment about the security situation on the Korean peninsula,” Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said.

Saturday is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s founding father and grandfather of current ruler, Kim Jong Un.

A military parade is expected in the North’s capital, Pyongyang, to mark the day. North Korea often also marks important anniversaries with tests of its nuclear or missile capabilities in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Men and women in colourful outfits were singing and dancing on the streets of Pyongyang, illuminated by better lighting than that seen in previous years, apparently practising for the parade planned.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent a message of congratulations to mark the event, lambasting “big powers” for their “expansionist” policy.

“The friendly two countries are celebrating this anniversary and, at the same time, conducting a war against big powers’ wild ambition to subject all countries to their expansionist and dominationist policy and deprive them of their rights to self-determination,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted the message as saying.

The North’s foreign ministry, in a statement carried by KCNA, said the U.S. navy strike group’s approach showed America’s “reckless moves for invading had reached a serious phase”.

“We never beg for peace but we will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms and keep to the road chosen by ourselves,” an unidentified ministry spokesman said.

North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.

Nearly two years after publicly announcing her transition from male to female, Caitlyn Jenner has undergone sex reassignment surgery and tells the world about the decision in her upcoming memoir, a new report claims.“The surgery was a success, and I feel not only wonderful but liberated,” Jenner reportedly writes in “The Secrets of My Life,” out April 25 (as excerpted by RadarOnline).The former Olympian reportedly underwent the below-the-belt surgery in January of this year.A rep for Jenner had no comment.The 67-year-old formerly known as Bruce Jenner gets very candid in the memoir, reportedly writing that, for her, a penis “has no special gifts or use for me other than what I have said before, the ability to take a whiz in the woods. I just want to have all the right parts. I am also tired of tucking the damn thing in all the time.”She decided to go public about her latest surgery “so all of you can stop staring. You want to know, so now you know. Which is why this is the first time, and the last time, I will ever speak of it,” according to Radar. Having the operation apparently was a “complex decision,” and Jenner considered potential health risks.It was previously known that Jenner had undergone facial feminization surgery and gotten breast implants.Jenner — who is parent to six children with ex-wives including Kris Jenner — came out as transgender in April 2015, during a highly publicized interview with Diane Sawyer. A few months later, she made her public debut as Caitlyn on the cover of Vanity Fair.

Two weeks before the French cast their first presidential ballots, the spectre of victory for the far-right leader who promises to crack down on immigration and outlaw gay marriage sends shivers down many a spine.

Pollsters say the anti-EU firebrand can count on the unwavering support of about one in four voters to get her past the first round of voting on April 23.

Although they also say the National Front (FN) leader cannot win in the decisive May 7 runoff whoever she faces, a great many pundits were wrong about Brexit and Donald Trump after failing to feel the populist pulse.

And with one in three voters still undecided at this late stage, pollsters would be wise to hedge their bets.

Predictions of a “nightmare” Le Pen presidency abound in bookstores and the media.

The 48-year-old candidate poses a “genuine peril”, according to Matthieu Croissandeau, editor-in-chief of the left-leaning newsweekly L’Obs, which ran a special report last month titled “Black Scenario of the First 100 Days”.

Dozens of actors, singers and other artists put their names to an op-ed in the Liberation daily last Sunday warning: “The National Front is on the threshold of power. We call for a bulwark against Marine Le Pen… in the name of freedom of thought and creativity.”

– Exile in Canada? –

Reminiscent of the runup to Trump’s election last year, many artists have said they would prefer exile to living under Le Pen. Like Americans virulently opposed to Trump, they say they are looking to Canada as a refuge.

“Just in case, I’m making plans to move to Quebec,” leftwing comedian Guy Bedos wrote in a book published in March. “I have an absolute aversion for the Le Pen family,” the 82-year-old told AFP.

In 2002, Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen, now sidelined from the FN because of views even farther to the right than his daughter’s, caused a political earthquake in France by winning through to the runoff.

But in that second round, voters of various political stripes reluctantly joined conservatives to elect Jacques Chirac and block the far right.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, the French-Mauritian author who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2008, said as far back as 2015 that he would hand in his French passport if Le Pen becomes president.

Others, including public figures, are promising active resistance to a government led by the far right.

France’s ambassador to Japan, Thierry Dana, wrote in an op-ed last month that he would “shelve all diplomatic duties” if Le Pen is elected.

– ‘Judges are fighting Trump’ –

The foreign ministry had to remind Dana of his obligation to remain neutral over the election.

Also throwing neutrality to the wind was Francois Durpaire, an educator and historian who co-authored a comic book titled “La Presidente” (using the feminine form of the noun) depicting France under Le Pen.

“For me as a professor of education sciences the question I would ask the next day (after a Le Pen victory) is: ‘How do you teach in French schools under Le Pen?'” he told AFP.

“I know what to do. I’ll stay in France, I’ll respect the outcome of the democratic vote, but I will resist with all my might any measure that goes against French law,” he said, citing Le Pen’s pledge to give French nationals priority access to public services including schools.

Keeping non-citizens out of French schools would be a “red line” for Durpaire.

“We will be able to mount not just moral resistance, but also legal resistance,” he said, noting: “Judges are fighting Trump, not just far-left activists.”

Trump’s efforts to bar entry to nationals of a string of mainly Muslim countries have been blocked by federal courts in several US states.

The head of the International Human Rights Federation, Dimitri Christopoulos, also said he would join the battle against a President Le Pen.

Her victory “would be a political defeat for human rights, but we would continue to fight,” he told AFP. “The ideological battle will be an existential priority for our societies,” said Christopoulos, a staunch defender of migrants’ rights who divides his time between France and Greece.

Laurent Joffrin, editor-in-chief of the leftwing daily Liberation, said resistance should begin with the legislative elections in June that will determine the shape of the future government.

“We won’t have fascism on day one,” he said. “France has a constitution and institutions, and laws need a majority to pass in parliament. So the immediate fight is to prevent the FN from winning a majority to implement its agenda.”

Joffrin also noted that if Le Pen wins, she is unlikely to have enough support outside her party to form a coalition government and would be forced into a co-habitation arrangement.

Iran and Russia have threatened to hit back if the US follows up on its air strike in Syria last week, ramping up tensions in the Middle East.
It comes after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cancelled a trip to Moscow and prepared a new diplomatic offensive against Russia.
He is also set to urge the Russians to pull their forces out, something which would involve a major loss of face for President Putin.
Eighty-nine people, including 33 children, died on Tuesday after a nerve agent was used in an attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria.

The Assad regime has denied it was responsible and the Russians have claimed it was a ‘false flag’ incident carried out by jihadists who want to stir up tensions between Russia and the US.
President Trump infuriated Moscow when he authorised an airstrike on a Syrian air base on Friday, which killed at least six people.
British Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said today it was the ‘right call’ for the Americans to bomb the air base as retribiution for a ‘barbaric, immoral and illegal’ act by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who he described as a Russian ‘proxy’.
But in a joint statement the Russian and Iranians said: ‘We will respond to any aggression’.
The Sun reported that a joint command centre in Syria said: ‘What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier condemned ‘flagrant US aggression on Syria’ following the Tomahawk strike on al-Shayrat.
While Russia’s support for the Assad regime dates back to the 1970s and 80s when Bashar’s father, Hafez, was a stalwart supporter of the Soviet Union and an implacable enemy of Israel, Iran’s support is based on religion.
Assad is from the Alawite minority and has long nursed fears of a rebellion by the Sunni majority and has welcomed the support of Iran, an overwhelmingly Shia Muslim country which also has reason to fear Sunnis.

Boris Johnson, who was due to visit Russia tomorrow for talks with counterpart Sergey Lavrov, said yesterday: ‘We deplore Russia’s continued defence of the Assad regime’.
He called off the visit at the last minute after a midnight phone call with US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, which led to accusations by Russia that Britain had no independent foreign policy.
Lavrov spoke to Tillerson last night and he reportedly told the American ‘that an attack on a country whose government is fighting against terrorism is only playing into extremists’ hands’.

Mr Johnson said: ‘We deplore Russia’s continued defence of the Assad regime even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,’ he said.
‘My priority is now to continue contact with the US and others in the run up to the G7 meeting on 10-11 April.’
Mr Johnson then called on Russia to do ‘everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated’.
But Alex Salmond, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman, said Johnson’s move made him look him ‘some sort of Mini Me’ who cannot be trusted to hold his own talks withLavrov.
Salmond said : ‘Boris Johnson just looks daft. What is the argument for not going ahead with a visit? Rex Tillerson is going on Wednesday so it can’t be that we have moved to a Cold War position of no talking whatsoever.

‘The idea the Foreign Secretary can’t be trusted because he might pursue his own line or have an independent thought or crossover what the Americans are going to say just makes him look like some sort of Mini Me to the United States of America.’
But the Sunday Telegraph claims Johnson is trying to persuade Tillerson to move back to the original plan for regime change in Damascus.
Johnson’s visit would have been the first visit by a UK foreign secretary in more than five years.
It comes as Britain gave full backing to the dramatic US missile strike on a Syrian air base in response to Bashar al-Assad’s ‘barbaric’ chemical attack – with Theresa May having given her blessing to Donald Trump before it happened.

The Kremlin has warned the US it is ‘one step from war’ over Syria – but the Trump administration hit back by saying it would be prepared to carry out airstrikes again.In the first direct American raid on Bashar al Assad’s forces, President Trump authorised the firing of 59 cruise missiles at a military airfield.Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev denounced the US for attacking ‘the legitimate government of Syria’ and for allegedly breaking international law without the approval of the UN.Mr Medvedev said: ‘This military action is a clear indication of the US president’s extreme dependency on the views of the Washington establishment, the one that the new president strongly criticised in his inauguration speech.’ ‘Soon after his victory, I noted that everything would depend on how soon Trump’s election promises would be broken by the existing power machine. It took only two and a half months.’The last remaining election fog has lifted. Instead of an overworked statement about a joint fight against the biggest enemy, ISIS, the Trump administration proved that it will fiercely fight the legitimate Syrian government’.But the US President warned he would do it again after unleashing a surprise attack on the Syrian regime with a massive show of firepower.
Officials said it was retaliation for Assad’s use of chemical weapons and would ‘deter’ further atrocities. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that her country had taken ‘a very measured step’.
She added: ‘We are prepared to do more but we hope that will not be necessary.’
Vladimir Putin yesterday also denounced the US missile strikes as an illegal act of aggression against a sovereign nation.
The furious Russian president responded to the attack against his ally by diverting warship the Admiral Grigorovich to protect the Syrian coast and vowing to bolster Assad’s missile defences against further bombing raids.
He also suspended a military hotline known as the ‘deconfliction line’ which is designed to avoid mid-air collisions and confrontations between Russian and US fighter jets over the war-torn country.
The two old Cold War superpowers clashed at the UN Security Council where a Russian envoy claimed US ‘aggression’ had strengthened terrorism.
But Mrs Haley said the Russian government held ‘considerable responsibility’ for Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
‘Every time Assad has crossed the line of human decency, Russia has stood beside him,’ she said.

He had terrorised his country and shocked the conscience of the world, Mrs Haley added.
‘He murdered hundreds of thousands and displaced millions’.
On Tuesday Assad launched ‘yet another chemical attack, murdering men women and children in the most gruesome way’, Mrs Haley said.
‘Assad did this because he thought he could get away with it. He thought he knew Russia would have his back.’

Donald Trump Jr. wants to run for political office, telling members of an elite gun club that he could set his sights on becoming governor of New York.Don Jr. spoke to members of the F6 Labs gun club in Hicksville, NY, and, when asked about his political ambitions, said he would love to follow his father, President Donald Trump, into office.A guest at Tuesday’s meeting told Page Six, “Don Jr. said he is interested in running for office, such as governor of New York, but the position of mayor of New York would be less interesting to him.”Don Jr. added that he didn’t want to be one of 100 Senators, nor a member of Congress.Campaigning alongside his father made him think about his future, with him saying, “Do I want to be behind the scenes and be a mouthpiece and fight back against crazy liberal media? Maybe.” Don Jr. joked that he missed the intensity of the presidential campaign: “Going back to doing deals is boring after 18 months. The politics bug bit me.”Since his father was sworn in, he and his brother Eric have taken over the Trump Organization.While Don Jr. didn’t indicate when he’d run, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is up for re-election in 2018, although he’s been named as a possible presidential candidate for 2020.Cuomo’s clashed with President Trump on immigration, climate change and Obamacare, and has also pushed for regulation of firearms.Don Jr., meanwhile, seems to be laying the groundwork with gun advocates. He’s an avid hunter who’s stalked elephants and posed with a dead leopard in a controversial Twitter post.Modal TriggerDonald Trump Jr., Melania Trump and Donald TrumpWireImageSpeaking in front of a group that included Nassau Police Commish Thomas Krumpter, vodka company owner Marty Silver, lawyer and lobbyist Brad Gerstman and restaurateur Chris Tsarsi, Don Jr. said he would oppose anything that restricts the Second Amendment, and he supports state reciprocity laws, which allow guns to be carried from state to state with a permit.He also spends every weekend in the Catskills hunting, fishing and shooting with his family.A Trump source added, “Don [Jr.] has no intentions of running for political office at this time . . . [He] is totally focused on running the Trump Organization with his brother.”